Safety Record of Airlines/Aircraft

A report prepared for FAA by GRA, Inc. entitled A Report on Issues Related to Public Interest in Aviation Safety Data, found that "… there currently is no evidence in accident data that would support the ranking of individual airlines based on their safety records….While there may be apparent differences in carrier safety records at any particular time, due largely to the infrequent but catastrophic nature of an air accident, there is no evidence that such distinctions persist nor that they are predictive of future safety performance. Rankings of airlines based on past accident records therefore provide no information to consumers seeking to make safety-enhancing comparisons for current or future travel choices."